Cowboy Boots

I love people watching especially when I travel.  I was sitting at the Houston International Airport working and waiting for my flight when I saw these cowboy boots walk by me.

I am not sure if I saw the long pointed toes that curled up like elf shoes or the sparkling sequence/studs.

I really need to figure out a way to come out of my shell a little bit. After all I am just so shy. (I am not responsible for anyone that just spit their drink all over the keyboard or other electronic device. )  I tried twice to get a photo of the boots as he walked by me. But after two  shots I got up and asked if I could take a picture.

He told me that he bought them in Leon, Mexico. They are known as Mexican Cowboy Boots.  On the Internet it showed several styles with even longer and more pointed toes. 

 

Brain Drain?!?!

Okay, maybe it is more that I packed up some spring clothes and went to Midland, Texas for a week and it has been in the low 30's every morning.  This afternoon it finally got a little bit warmer.  Sure! I am leaving in the morning and going back to Minnesota where it is sub below zero minus wind chill.

I hope that you are praying with me that my car will start tomorrow afternoon. 

It will be a busy weekend.  My nephew, Isaac, is staying at my place Friday evening.  He has basketball in the city next to mine on Saturday morning. With Mom and Dad both working, it will work nice for Auntie to take him to his "tournament". 

I am having a difficult time concentrating tonight but then it is after midnight.  I am going to sign off and say "Have a great Friday!"

Osaka in Midland Texas

Just down the road from the road from where the hotel is the Osaka Japanese restaurant. I love Japanese food but no with eating very low carb it's more difficult. We ended up sitting around the grill with the chef cooking in front of us and entertaining us.

Who is us? My coworkers and some of the clients that we work with. Traveling gets hard when it comes to eating out.

I'm supposed to have some broth everyday, so I was excited to have traditional Japanese soup. The Japanese salads are also very healthy they have a nice light dressing. I ordered salmon and steak. It comes with vegetables and either rice or noodles. I just said no to the rice and noodles and stuck with the protein and vegetables.

Blessings fall when God speaks

Do you remember a while ago when I shared about going with my sister to gallery? Everything seem to be working in a bigger plan a day. My sister had received two phone calls about from people who wanted to learn how to silk paint. Everything was timing out just right.

When I was at the gallery I saw a scarf and I thought, "I need to buy that." I knew that I needed to buy it and give it away as a gift. Today was the day that I gave it away.

I gave it to Sharon.  She wears a lot of scarves. I knew that it was meant to be when I gave it to her today. Randomly she had not worn a scarf today and the scarf matched the outfit she was wearing.

There isn't a feeling as good as blessing another person. This all started with my sisters wish for her birthday celebration and God whispered his answer to her prayer.

Tiny pleasures

As my sister called this adult cheese treats; Baby Bella cheese. I have been a little leary to try this new cheese that came out. But after my sisters raving about the white cheddar, I had to try it.

So here is my assessment. They are really really cute. Each little babybel white cheddar is 75 calories. They travel very easily. They are well-designed as the outer wrap has a little red tab that you pull open. Then the inner portion is another wrap that is made of a wax product that has two little tabs on it that you pull and it breaks it into a little Pacman type of a thing that you just open up. The cheese inside is soft and delicious.

I do have to say that they have won me over. This not only fits into my new eating style but it's also easy to travel with.

UFO and IFO

There is an old saying that all UFO is is something you have not yet identified. I do believe that there could be life on other planets. But I'm not sure they visit us in space ships.

Late at night I got this picture. All the bright lights up in the sky; they are IFO's identified flying objects. In other words, they are airplanes. But it got me thinking... "How many times in the past did we see pictures of three lights close together and people wonder what is that?" As I was watching the airline come in before it turned; I realized it was three lights in a triangle shape is that our UFO?

I know. I watch too much science fiction. Sometimes I joke about the implant that the aliens put in my head. That's just a joke!

An alligator parade

There are some people that are enjoying the winter weather. These people are the snowmobilers. Since Dale refers to snowmobile tracks as alligator tracks, I thought it was appropriate to call this an alligator parade. 

There was a special run on today that went between four different places (on snowmobiles). It was a fundraiser for cancer. I didn't realize it was going on until I drove by the first stop point. I was surprised to see so many snowmobiles at one spot.

It was obvious that all of the riders were enjoying the beautiful sunshine and the nice snow pack. It looks like they had nice snowmobiling all the way long the trip. I noticed that there were both adults and children on the snowmobiles.

So it is true there are people out there who really like this weather. But for me it's getting a little bit old I can't wait for spring.

I do have to note that I find it quite funny there is a "do not snow mobile here" sign across the street from my place. I see so many snowmobilers whip right past that sign ignoring it totally. It doesn't take them a couple minutes to come back. There's a 10 foot drop off at the other end of the park. This goes for everybody, read the signs. They are there for a reason.

See me not

Our little Misty Blue was quite the cute little puppy today. Duchess got a hold of some of the toys that she wanted to play with and when that just wouldn't give them back she decided to sneak in to get them.

Misty Blue got underneath the doggie bed and then she's snuck over to where the toy was laying and slid her paw out. Of course Duchess just figured out what she was doing and then Misty rolled over and said "who me?"

Lately I've gone to calling Misty Blue "booboo" like Yogi Bear and BooBoo too. She seems to answer to it pretty well so I think that's going to be a good nickname for her she's our little BooBoo.

Snow snow go away

Some call it cabin fever.  Others call it the winter blues. All that I know is that I am sick and tired of Winter. We got around 6 inches of snow today. This evening the wind started blowing so hard that the snow is coming down sideways. I am not sure if it's still snowing or not but what I do know is there's a lot of snow in the air.

I am writing the blog tonight on my phone. I am using the new technology where I speak and it writes. So hopefully I catch all the weird thing is that it does. At the end of every sentence I have to say the word "period". I am considering purchasing a program like this so that when I write my book then I can just speak and it will type. I'm not sure how much I like it. But its definitely something worth trying for a for a time.

Wherever you are reading this from I hope that you are enjoying better weather than what I have here tonight. If you're in the same storm; drive safe, be safe, and stay warm.

Silk Painting

You will probably see this same title several times.  One of the art styles that I am working with is Silk Paining which is also referred to as wearable art.  I had to work with the frames that I had at home.  I had a frame for 11" silk handkerchiefs (but I was out of the white silks.)  I also had a frame for an 8" X 60" scarf and the boards to make a frame for my 35" silks.  I decided to practice on the 8" X 60" scarf. Notice the frame is made up of cardboard.  It is 3 layers of cardboard nested together (horizontal, vertical, then horizontal).

Wet silk stretched

I soaked the white silk before starting.  I wanted to do more of a blended color with some pops of color but something that could be worn with a more colorful shirt and not clash with the shirt.  I didn't have any particular shirt in mind.


Painted Silk

The key to working with blending was to get everything done before the silk dries.  I had to flip the frame over several times.  I took a risk and I took a spray bottle an gave it a good spray down half-way through.  (I stepped out into the three-season porch.)


Silk in color set process

Depending on the dyes that you use, there are different ways to set the colors.  The dyes I use require a chemical set in cold water.  I was a little scared when I saw the water starting to turn blue.  I thought I was losing all of my additional color.


Silk hanging to dry

Doesn't everyone hang their drying clothes over the kitchen sink from the cupboard above?  The 12:17 from the clock on the wall is AM just in case you are wondering.  It isn't uncommon for me to stay up too late at night.


Dried Painted Silk

In controversy at lunch the next day, 12:10 PM, I took the photo of the dried scarf.  Since lighting is everything, I took it to the main entrance and hung it on the screen door.  I got lucky and the sun was out for those couple of minutes.  Although I liked the way it turned out, I was expecting it to be a little more vibrant.  I guess that I used too much water as I worked the colors.



Finished silk in sunlight

As I practice more, I will share the pieces with you.  One thing you need to know about art is that it takes a lot of work trying to figure out the right technique. And just when you think that you have it, something surprises you.

Another beautiful sunset

We made a fast trip to Litchfield tonight to pick up more diabetes testing strips. On the way home we pulled off on a country road to walk the dogs. The sunset became more and more brilliant as we drove.

Let me clarify that, Dale drove and I rode.  It was beautiful!

MONDAY!

Do I need to say more than that?  I don't often have the stereotypical "bad Monday" but today is pushing the limits. 


First of all it snowed just over 4 inches, the plow packed a two foot drift across my driveway so I had to blow snow out of my driveway to get the dogs over to Dale's place.  I took an early lunch break to remove snow.  Before I could do that, Dale had to drop off the remote for the garage where the snow blower is stored.


As Dale drove up to drop off the remote, instead of stopping he sped up and a small vehicle came whizzing by (I'm not good at equipment names but I think it was a small skid-loader used for snow removal.)  My first reaction was, "WOW, they are moving fast. If they don't watch out they will run into the back of Dale's pickup."  It was a neighbor from down the road and I see him whip by periodically. 

What I found out a short time later was that they were chasing Dale around town.  Behind the skid-loader a ways was a pick-up with a plow.  They were all over town today so I didn't think anything about it. 


Then on the work aspect, two weeks of work disappeared with an update that was done last Friday.  After half an hour of negotiations, we figured a way to restore the back up so that I could move the work to a different environment.  WHEW! What a day!

Re-organized

I have a lot of movies still to copy over to DVD.  I have been feeling very overwhelmed by the project.  I decided that it needed my special organization to motivate me again.

All the tapes here, on the table and in the open drawer, are from when I owned a video camera.  I still own it. It no longer works and I haven't had a chance to dispose of it.

As I was organizing today, I thought of my digital camera that has a digital recorder. Now wandering through my mind is the question "I wonder if I can find a program to change these movies into digital movies right away?"

For now I will get these movies onto discs. While I research my next project.

A cartoon story

I have a new phone and I was playing with the cartoon mode.



The Queen

There once was a beautiful black Doberman that had a semi retired people.  Her favorite spot to sit was on the right half of the love seat.   She sat there like the queen of the house, which of course was what she was.



The Princess

She made her people lay on the floor to rest. She also had in her kingdom a young beautiful gray princess. The Princess loved her people and curled up around his head like a crown.



Whatcha doing?

Okay, Dale was laying on the floor using the Exerciser Elite and Misty Blue was playing ball with him and Duchess took the opportunity to steal her favorite spot.

The Truth

Happy Valentine's Day ♡

Today was a  beautiful sunny day which in Minnesota means it is cold! It is a day of romance (according to the marketing agencies.) 



Cyclamen (gift from Dale)

My work day was interrupted with a very pleasant interruption.  Dale stopped by with a beautiful plant.

Candle on a heart doily

Then after work, we went out with supper at Wally's café' in Watkins.   They had the normal fish and shrimp all you can eat. For Valentine's Day they had special meals of ribeye steaks or stuffed chicken. The meal came with a trip to the salad bar, a side of vegetables with a roll, twice baked potatoes, and a dessert (banana cake or better than sex cake.)  In the center of the table was a nice candle. 

Steak & twice baked potatoes



Healthy Salad (no dressing)

Veggies & a roll



Better than sex cake

I didn't throw my eating to the wind. I only had a few bites of potatoes which were loaded with sour cream, bacon, and cheddar cheese.   I had a small bite of dessert and I skipped the roll entirely. 

After supper walk

After supper, Dale promised to reach up and give me the moon. So we took the dogs for a walk and watched the full, red moon rise across the horizon. Brrr.... As the sun went down the cold came out. Happy Valentine's Day ♡! 



Reach for the moon

Time for a new phone!

Two days ago my cell phone stopped working.   People could hear me but I couldn't hear them. It has been a month of technical failure.

First, I lost my old printer and now my phone. As I loaded my cell phone with e-mails, I came to the sad realization that I keep up four e-mail accounts.

My main account is my Hotmail account. I have an old account from the day spa that I use as Dale's when he wants to sign up for things.  I have a g-mail account for my book sales. And I have my work e-mail.

Are you wondering what phone I bought? It is a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. A little bit too big and lots of bells and whistles!☆  :^)

Tax Time!

Sorry I didn't post last night and tonight it I late again.  I have been doing my taxes and a few close relatives taxes.  I am glad to say that I am done with taxes for 2013!  Everyone got something back for a refund.  There are mixed views and philosophy's about refunds.


Everyone likes to see a refund.  But many people believe that is not the best plan.  When we overpay our taxes, the government uses that overpayment until the day that they return it with no interest.


On the other side of the swinging pendulum are the people that need to pay in every year.  As long as you pay more in taxes than you did the year before, you won't get a penalty.  But you do run the risk of being charged penalties and interest.  You also need to come up with extra money in the spring of the year.  That thought is never a pleasant one for me.


The perfect solution is to try to plan as close to zero as possible with a minimal refund and not owing anything.  That would be easy to plan for if the politicians didn't wait until the last minute to publish the tax tables.  Lately changes are made to the tax table throughout the year leaving "planning" to be close as not a very good idea.


I bounced it around a bit this year.  With the publication of my book, I cashed in some of my 401K.  I knew that the book publishing in the late portion of the year would leave a loss on the tax returns.  The difficult thing will be seeing the gain this next year.  I will be lucky if I don't need to pay in for 2014.

Book 3 "Trusted Friend" update

Finding the time to write has been a difficult thing to do. But I have pinched out minutes and hours here and there which leaves me with a rough draft of a book that is almost done.  I like where Geoffrey, George and Evelyn and the rest of the characters took me with this book.


Geoffrey found his new purpose for his life.  As God Blesses him in his new life changes, Geoffrey blesses many un-expecting people from all walks of life. With blessings in life, comes Satan's attacks.  Geoffrey needs to find the strength that only comes from God to face the changes in his life.


George and Evelyn's relationship is tested as the stress from George's job pushes in from every side for both George and Evelyn.  Despite the extra pressures, Evelyn pushes forward with her special outreach to the homeless and working poor. 


Geoffrey, George, Evelyn and all the other characters learn new definitions of "trust" and "friend" that redefines their expectations as they work through the highs and lows that come with their daily lives. Their worlds are rocked by the appearance and disappearance of trusted friends.
 

Spring house-cleaning (early)

I decided to begin Spring house-cleaning today.  First because I don't like cleaning so Spring house-cleaning takes me a LONG time.  But secondly, because I wanted to psych myself into the idea that Spring is coming close. 


I heard some sad statistics on the news today about the large number of days that our low temperature has been below zero.  It isn't news anymore.  The news is that by Wednesday or Thursday that they expect a full twenty-four hours above zero! WOO-hoo!


You need to understand the way that I do things.  I begin one thing here, they I end up moving something to there and I start another thing there.  That continues until I have four or five things going on at once and I get very excited to finish one or two.  It drives Dale crazy. But you now understand why I often can't find things after I clean.  :^)


I didn't accomplish enough to take a photo.  Maybe when I finish in 2016!  Ha-ha!

When things work together....

Several month ago, my sister told me that she wanted to go to an art gallery for her birthday.  Something that would inspire her artistic side.  With busy schedules, it made it impossible to plan anything. UNTIL!!!!  Wednesday in the mail came a postcard announcing that artist Ann Taecker was having an artist meet and greet at K.K. Berge Gallery in Granite Falls, MN sponsored by the  Granite Area Arts Council.


Ann, Trisha, Tabatha

We have taken silk painting classes from Ann in the past and Granite Falls is a bit of a drive but closer than her base.  It was time to have a refresher.  Both Tabatha and I have black silks, dyes, and stretch frames.  So hopefully this weekend, we can find time to apply our inspiration.  (Step one is done! The supplies are out of storage.)



Silk Art inspired by butterflies

We were definitely inspired by the artwork.  


Silk Art: Waterfall

 At work on Friday, just before leaving for Granite Falls, out of the blue a woman said to Tabatha "I hear that you know how to paint on silk. Could you teach me?"  After finding out that there is one other person that is interested in silk painting, we decided to investigate the possibility of having Ann come to the area again to  teach another class!  Stay tuned for more information on that event.



Wearable Art: Front View



Wearable Art: Back View



Tiger